Deadly crossroads: State of the Florida Panther

Florida Panther 93 awakens from sedation in Big Cypress National Preserve in 2006.

Ralph Arwood/Special to the Daily News

Wildlife biologist Dennis Giardina directs his tracking antenna in search of Florida panthers in the Big Cypress National Preserve in February. With Giardina are biologists John Kellam, left, and Deborah Jansen.

Ralph Arwood/Special to the Daily News

Big Cypress National Preserve veterinarian Emmett Blankenship holds open the jaws of a panther so researchers can document the condition of the cat’s teeth after it was captured in Ochopee in rural Collier County. As land becomes increasingly scarce near the coast, groups like Habitat for Humanity are looking farther inland toward panther habitats for opportunities to build affordable homes.

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Biologists release Florida Panther 120 with a tracking collar in Big Cypress National Preserve. The female was laid up to nine months after being hit by a vehicle on U.S. 41.

Ralph Arwood/Special to the Daily News

A female panther and her two nearly grown offspring walk on a path in southern Golden Gate Estates.

Courtesy of Conservancy of Southwest Florida

Wildlife biologist Deborah Jansen places a new radio collar on a panther captured near Ochopee as veterinarian Emmett Blankenship, right, and other researchers from Big Cypress National Preserve observe. Rocky McBride, in sunglasses, tracked the cat with his hounds and immobilized it with a dart. The male panther was captured earlier that morning after it fed on chickens and a turkey taken from a nearby campground.

David Ahntholz/Staff

Three-week-old Florida panther kittens — Nos. 236, 237 and 238 — cuddle in their Big Cypress National Preserve den during a medical checkup conducted by wildlife biologists in April. The kittens are the offspring of Nos. 103 and 127.

Ralph Arwood/Special to the Daily News

FP147 is one of about 40 panthers whose movements are being tracked with radio collars by state and federal biologists in Southwest Florida.

As subdivisions in Florida multiply, so do panthers’ problems. Development sprawling eastward from Naples encroaches on habitat that was once the Florida panther’s range. Springing up northeast of U.S 41 East and Collier Boulevard is Verona Walk, shown here.

File photo

A dead female lies on the shoulder of State Road 29 nearly three miles north of Oil Well Road in October 2004. The panther was believed to have been about 2 years old.

Mark Lotz/Special to the Daily News

Ryan Knutson, a law enforcement officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, checks the speed of drivers heading south along the section of State Road 29 that passes through the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge.

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Doyle Cook, a law enforcement officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, issues a speeding ticket to a driver on State Road 29. During the day the speed limit is 60 mph through the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, but it drops to 45 mph after dark.

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Traffic heads north along Collier Boulevard past a panther sign. Wildlife advocates say underpasses may be an answer to the panther’s losing battle with vehicles.

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Front-paw tracks of Florida Panther 150 are seen in the soil during a tracking of the cat on Feb. 7 in the Big Cypress National Preserve.

Ralph Arwood/Special to the Daily News

Mark Lotz, a wildlife biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, takes a dead female Florida panther out of a freezer and loads it onto a truck for transport to the commission’s office in Gainesville for a necropsy exam. The panther was killed June 21 by a car while crossing County Road 832 in Hendry County.